Ignoramus31576 wrote:
Roy Schestowitz wrote:
Ignoramus31576 on Friday:
According to Mr. Salles, a survey polling members of the
French Assembly found that 80 percent of the members were
happy with the new software, which included new e-mail and
office applications, while 14 percent felt Windows should
return.
Wal-Mart had similar experiences before Microsoft stepped in
to interfere. Customers liked their Linux boxes, which sold
very well.
How did Microsoft interfere with Walmart?
I would like to know.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9890880-16.html
[quote]
Remember Microsoft's COO, Kevin Turner? He's a former Wal-Mart
executive. Turner used to run Wal-Mart's Sam's Club business unit
and before that was Microsoft's chief information officer.
Even when Wal-Mart has made motions toward Linux and open source,
Microsoft (no doubt inspired by Turner) has been there to help it
see the light. It was likely Turner who pushed Wal-Mart to go on
the record as adopting SUSE Linux for its Linux deployments
because of patent protection. Wal-Mart never goes on the record
for anything related to IT purchases. The fact that it did in
this case says a lot about the exeuctive sleepovers that happen
between the two companies.
Indeed, the more successful this retail Linux PC experiment by
Wal-Mart, the less likely it was to continue. Had the PCs sat on
the shelves Microsoft would have been gleeful to let it continue.
It may well be that Wal-Mart simply didn't push enough units to
make the grade. Many great products simply don't sell for
Wal-Mart, and it dumps them. But in this case, it could well be
that Linux's success paved the way for its downfall due to a
too-cozy relationship between the world's largest retailer and
the world's largest software vendor.
[/quote]
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HPT
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